I Find I'm Not Afraid
by ladycordelia17
Summary: Steamy oneshot based on "The Great Revival" and a poem I wrote from the POV of my Selkie character Anais Nin. Gift-fic for SasukeBlade, rated M for Mount Kilanda.


_**Awhile back, I wrote a story, **The Great Revival**, where once the Tipa caravanners made the final assault on the Meteor Parasite at Mount Vellenge, my Selkie among them, Anais Nin, got separated from her friends and taken to Leuda. There, against all odds, she discovered that her sweetheart (the Selkie researcher De Nam) was alive and well, after she believed him to be dead at Conall Curach--and he asked her to marry him the moment they were reunited. I then promised my loyal reviewer SasukeBlade that I would thus be sending Anais Nin to the proverbial Mount Kilanda after dropping a hint in a later chapter (see my forum for details). I have finally delivered on that promise!**_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles or any characters or locations within, only my own Selkie character, Anais Nin._

**I Find I'm Not Afraid**

The sky over the western shore of Leuda glowed ruby with the puffy clouds that floated lazily past the setting sun. Having finished her chores for the evening, a lavender-haired and silver-eyed Selkie walked north, climbing deftly over the cropping of rocks that secluded a beautiful stretch of sandy beach. There she removed her work-stained clothes and worn sandals, leaving them piled neatly on a flat rock that jutted out, and waded a few steps to where she could sit down and bathe in the shallow sea. She basked in the gentle glow of the sunset, sighing contentedly as the rippling surf washed and caressed her lithe, gracefully curved form.

"Anaїs Nin," a masculine voice spoke her name from behind, as a warm, familiar body sat down to straddle her form and embraced her, pressing his tightly-muscled chest against her back. "Imagine finding you out here, bathing in the shallows." He gently gathered her soft lavender hair to one side and began placing tender kisses on her shoulder and the nape of her neck, feeling her shiver, hearing her make small sounds in her throat from the pleasure she felt at his touch.

"You know, De Nam, how much I like it when the sky glows so red at sunset," she mused in a low voice of contentment, turning her face toward him as he kissed up her neck and jaw line, until he caught her lips with his own, his kisses deepening as she turned to give him better access. The sensations beginning to course through her—the warmth of his hands caressing up and down her body, and the cool of the salty seawater lapping at her heated skin—made her moan into the deepening kiss.

De Nam broke the kiss gently to glance again at the setting sun. "Maybe you like the red sunset so much," he suggested with an amused smile, beginning to stand and lift Anaїs Nin out of the shallow water, "because it makes you think of a place where you went to look for myrrh, not so long ago. A place that glows redder even than the western sky at dusk…" He led her to a place somewhat up the shore where he had spread out a few blankets upon which to rest as he began to quote a poem that she had once told him: _"Ever toward the western sky the sun begins to sink…"_

"_To Mount Kilanda, searching for myrrh, my journey here is made,"_ answered Anaїs Nin, wrapping her arms around De Nam and guiding him down once they reached the bed of blankets. It was a game they often played; she would recite her poem about Mount Kilanda as he stirred pleasure within her that threatened to erupt like the great volcano, sometimes struggling to speak coherently because of his distraction. _"I see the sun's last gleaming as the ferry nears the brink…"_ He began stroking her hair, lovingly kissing her jaw line and the shell of one ear, repeating the treatment on her other ear before moving down to her neck—_"And yet, of this great mountain,"_ said she just before she kissed the top of his forehead and threaded a hand through his blue hair, _"I find I'm not afraid."_

"_Even on the shore the air is hot upon my skin…"_ Anaїs Nin ever-so-timely continued to recite as De Nam started to tease her with his hot breath on her breasts, chasing the drops of seawater off her heated skin, until he began kissing the underside of one breast where a water-drop had rolled down. _"Ogres…coeurls…ahrimans…the monsters promenade…"_ she panted even as he now brushed his lips over her hardened nipple, not quite using his tongue yet. _"Lava mu…or blazer beetle…my battle here begins…"_ but De Nam quickly cut her off in a pleasured moan by lashing his tongue against the sensitive peak. He continued to assault Anaїs Nin with pleasure for almost a minute before he finally drew away to let her catch her breath and finish the stanza: _"And yet, of this great mountain, I find I'm not afraid."_

But no sooner had Anaїs Nin uttered the last word of the line than she felt De Nam's lips on the underside of her other breast—and his hands, hitherto mostly caressing her stomach and sides, moved lower, one coming to rest on her hip and the other beginning to stroke up and down a thigh. _"Hotter, higher, toward the summit, onward I will climb,"_ she managed to recite just before his clever fingers reached the delicate folds of her womanhood, already enticingly wet. His touches, light as they were, and his attentions to her breast, made her shudder and gasp even as she valiantly continued to recite (as though fighting her way up Mount Kilanda itself): _"What will happen…what may come…"_—gasp—_"I will not be waylaid!"_ Again, several more long seconds found Anaїs Nin unable to recite from responding in gasps and moans to what De Nam was doing to her, until he let up and she determinedly continued between her panting: _"I will reach that tree of myrrh, and all within good time—of this infernal mountain, I find I'm not afraid."_

"_The summit draws ever nearer,"_ Anaїs Nin panted in a mix of relief and anticipation as De Nam moved himself up her body again, now settling between her spread legs, _"the myrrh tree now is nigh…"_

"_But here stands the Iron Giant, one final barricade,"_ he spoke in answer, smirking in his distinctly Selkic fashion as he stretched his lean, muscular form atop hers, using his arms to gather her close. _"Great sword he raise for battle…"_—he brushed his throbbing manhood against her weeping petals for emphasis, earning a delicious quiver of anticipation from the woman beneath him—_"red flame within his eye…"_

The next move was hers, Anaїs Nin knew as she locked her passion-filled silver gaze with that of the man above her for the longest moment, until the waiting became unbearable. She could, and often did, make it a test of De Nam's control, to see just how long he could hold back then, for he would never penetrate her until her seductive smirk widened with her bold words: _"Yet of this Iron Giant, I find I'm not afraid."_

She cried out in shock and pleasure then as he entered her with a swift thrust, feeling him plunge deeply into her being, hearing the blissful groan that echoed her own, until he caught her mouth with his in a breath-stealing kiss.

Anaїs Nin couldn't seem to get the air into her lungs fast enough, tearing her lips from De Nam's on a sharp gasp as he began moving within her, slow withdrawals followed by deep thrusts, each one hitting something deep within her that lit sparks behind her eyes. She would beg him to move faster, to go harder, to give her the release that she so desperately needed, but somehow she couldn't form the words. She felt the pleasure build within her, a Kilanda rumbling with her ecstatic shudders, dying to erupt.

De Nam, too, was dangerously close to his release, tightening his arms around Anaїs Nin's quivering form, each of his thrusts plundering deeper. "Come with me," he urged, voice husky with passion, "come with me, Anaїs Nin…"

These few words of encouragement were all that was needed to send Anaїs Nin over the edge, for within seconds her back arched upwards as she convulsed around De Nam, screaming out his name in the intensity of her release. She felt him come undone a moment later, felt the spasms of pleasure wrack his body as his hot seed flooded her insides, heard his deep shuddering groan.

They lay there for several long minutes, exhausted and spent, until De Nam finally gathered the strength to lever his weight off Anaїs Nin's supine form. The exhausted lavender-haired woman opened her heavy-lidded eyes when she registered that De Nam had crawled off to one side and was now drawing her to him again in a loving embrace. "And how does the poem end again?" asked he with a tired grin.

"_When battle tires me, at last I reach the tree of myrrh,"_ answered Anaїs Nin with a fatigued sigh, _"into the chalice the drop it falls; now homeward-bound I'm bade, to keep the crystal shining bright, the miasma to deter—for even of Kilanda mount I find I'm not afraid."_

"And to think that if the demon had gotten his way," De Nam acknowledged wearily, "I never would've heard such a poem from you at all, much less been able to break it down into all its lovely metaphors." He couldn't help but chuckle at this thought.

Anaїs Nin laughed in reply. _"Know you this, great demon black,"_ she declared boldly, _"that here is where I stand: on the rumbling volcano, for I, the brave sea-maid, come so much closer now than ever to making my final stand—for of this I find, and so will you, that I am not afraid."_

"And I'm so glad that you did," answered De Nam with a yawn just before he pulled a blanket up over them both, and they fell asleep, full of contentment, under the fading dusk.


End file.
